Industrious 8th Grader Develops an Ingenious Projection System That Eliminates Driver Blind Spots

Alaina Gassler, a really industrious eighth-grader who lives in West Grove, Pennsylvania, created an ingenious system that essentially eliminates the treacherous blind spots that plague every driver on the road. Gassler’s system was built with a webcam, a 3D printed part and an LED screen that would create projections that gives the driver complete information about who is on the road with them and where they actually are within their line of sight.

Many car accidents are caused by drivers not being able to see hazards due to blind spots. My prototype is designed to get rid of those blind spots by displaying an image of the area behind them onto the spot. I used a small projector as the displaying device and a webcam as the recording device. The webcam is mounted onto the outside of the car, and the projector displays the image only the A-pillar of the car.

The Broadcom Foundation MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology, and Engineering for Rising Stars) Program and the Society for Science & the Public awarded the 14 year old Gassler with the Samueli Foundation top prize of $25,000.

Broadcom Foundation and Society for Science & the Public today announced that Alaina Gassler, 14, of West Grove, Pennsylvania, won the coveted $25,000 Samueli Foundation Prize, the top award in the Broadcom MASTERS®, the nation’s premier science and engineering competition for middle school students.

The project was came about through the way Gassler’s mother drives.